Monday, January 16, 2017

9 MLK Quotes the Mainstream Media Won't Cite

The Martin
Luther King Jr. who is cynically trotted out every time racial unrest erupts in
our cities is the MLK who can be conveniently used to prop up the status quo.
He is MLK reduced to “I Have A Dream,” used in conservative
political ads[3] to scare-monger about
invading, job-stealing Mexican immigrants. He is the almost wholly fabricated
MLK whom the modern GOP claims would today be one of their own[4],
presumably standing alongside them as they vote against the poor, people of
color and women of every race at every opportunity. He is MLK reimagined as the
passive figure the facist, racist elerising in this country wants us to be as
they lean into the boot on our necks.

In reality,
those examples rely on half-truths and half-reveals of who MLK truly was. In
real, big-picture life, MLK was far more radical than the cherry-picked lines
from his speeches and books would suggest, a man who moved further left over
the course of his long and weary fight for African-American civil rights. By
1966, MLK had become an outspoken opponent of "liberal" white
complicity in white supremacy, of American imperialism and warmongering, of the
capitalist system itself. Modern right-wingers’ use of quotes from MLK (here
are a few examples[5]) twist and
misuse his words in ways that belie much of what he ultimately came to stand
for.

The next
time you see MLK corrupted and misused as a tool of capitalism, racism,
unchecked white supremacy and war, recall that MLK said “a riot is the language
of the unheard.” Here are several more examples of MLK’s most radical
statements.

1. “Why is
equality so assiduously avoided? Why does white America delude itself, and how
does it rationalize the evil it retains?

The
majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice
for the Negro. They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to
fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class Utopia embodying racial
harmony. But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable
vanity.”

2. “I
contend that the cry of "Black Power" is, at bottom, a reaction to
the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make
justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is
the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It
has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over
the last few years."

3.
"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and
condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at
the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in
our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel
that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get
attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the
unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?...It has failed to hear
that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed
to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about
tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."

4. “When
machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more
important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and
militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

5. “Again
we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and
prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is
that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and
continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white,
both here and abroad.”

“Whites, it
must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate
themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of
superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to
learn.

The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the
twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration,
is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest
causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language
about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the
ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He
remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises
the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an
ever-present tendency to backlash.”

9.
"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely
disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable
conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom
is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white
moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers
a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is
the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the
goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who
paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom;
who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to
wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from
people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from
people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright
rejection."

"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs